Electric-wire insulator



(No Model!) J. LOCKE & W. BOWKER.

ELECTRIC WIRE INSULATOR.

Patented Apr. 28

Inn/671507 6,

Jse A [00/62 NITED STATES PATENT Drrrcn.

JOSEPH LOOKE AND XVILLIAM BOXVKER, OF MEDFORD, ASSIGNORS, BY MESNE ASSIGNMENTS, TO THEMSELVES, AND ROBERT XVILLIAMS, OF

ELECTRIC-WIRE INSULATOR.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 316,469, dated April 28, 1885.

Application filed February 14, 18?? To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that we, JosnPH LOOKE and WILLIAM BowKnR, of Medford, in the county of Middlesex, of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Electric-fire Insulators and their Supporting-Rails; and we do hereby declare the same to be described in the following specification, and represented in the accompanying drawings, of which Figure 1 is an end elevation, Fig. 2 a front view, Fig. 3 a top view, Fig. 4 a bottom view, Fig. 5 a longitudinal section, and Fig. 6 a transverse section, of two insulators and their supporting-rails provided with our invention, the nature of which is defined in the claims hereinafter presented. Fig. 7 is a vertical section of the rail and an insulator to be described.

Each insulator is to be constructed of glass or some other suitable non-conductor of electricity, they being shown at A and A and their sustaining-rail at B, the latter being usually of wood. One insulator, A, extends upward from and above and straddles the rail. The other insulator, A, is similarly applied to and projects below such rail.

The rail is flat on its upper as well as on its lower edge.

At top as well as at bottom the rail has two flanges, a a, extending from it laterally beyond its body part b, which is rectangular in transverse section.

In order that an insulator may be applied to or be removed from the rail without dis turbing others adjacent to the part thereof to receive such insulator, such flange of the rail at its top or bottom is to be recessed or notched down to the body of the rail, the length ofeach notch being a little greater than that of the flange of the insulator, two of such notches be ing shown at c c in Fig. 4 and one of them in Fig. 2. The two notches are directly opposite each other.

The insulator A is provided with a dome shaped head, d, between which and the body 6, which is cylindrical, is the wire-sustaining groove f, which, with the head, is provided with a series of grooves, 9, extending at equal distances apart vertically through them. These grooves are to carry off water that may (No model.)

rain upon the crown of the head or be melted from snow or ice which may accumulate there on. Each vertical groove extends in rear of and opens into the wirereceiving groove, in order that the water in running through the vertical groove may not come into contact with the wire to affect the insulator.

From the body 0 of the insulator legs h are extended on opposite sides ofthe rail, and having flanges c to project under and against the flanges of the top of the rail and to such body, each leg and its flange being stiffened or strengthened by two ribs, k, )roj ecting upward on the leg and body, and from the flange eX- tended outwardly as well as inwardly, as shown, from the leg. The body is chambered concentrically, the chamber Z being open at bottom and having within it a block, m, of wood, that projects from and below the chamher and rests on the top of the rail, there being diametrically through the body and above the said block a passage, u, to receive a wooden wedge, 0, which, when forced sufficiently into the passage, presses the block down upon the rail and forces upward the insulator, so as to cause the flanges of the legs of it to bear firmly against those of the rail under which they may project. Sometimes we make the insulator without the passage and block, in which case we secure it to the rail by driving a thin wedge of wood between the base of the body of the insulator and to top of the rail, such being as shown in Fig. 7, which is avertical section of the rail and the insulator so made, the fastening-wedge being shown at 0 in such figure. The grooves g are not arranged directly over the ribs 70, but between them, in order that such ribs may not obstruct the flow of water from the said grooves.

lVith a rail flanged both at top and bottom, as shown, two sets of insulators may be sup ported, one extending up and the other down from it, and therefore the rail may be employed to advantage in carrying more wires than it could were the insulators extended upward from it only.

\Ve claim- 1. An electrical circuit-wire insulator having a dome-shaped head, and at the base there of a wiresupporting groove extending in and around the body of such insulator, two legs projecting down from opposite sides of such body and provided with flanges, and its ribs arranged on them, as described, and grooves extending down through the head and body and across the wire-sustaining groove and between the ribs, all being substantially as represented.

2. An electrical circuit-wire insulator pro vided with two legs projecting down from opposite sides of it and having a flange extending inwardly from each leg at its lower part, as set forth, such legs and flanges being for aiding in fixing the insulator to a rail, as explained.

3. An electrical circuit-wire insulator provided with two legs projecting down from opposite sides of it, and also with a flange extending inwardly and outwardly from each leg at its lower part, and also having two ribs ex tending upward on each leg from its flange to or nearly to the top of the body and projecting from such leg and body, all being substantially as represented.

4. An electrical eircuit-wire insulator provided not only with two legs projecting down from opposite sides of it, and also with a flange extending inwardly from each leg at its lower part, but with a chamber within the body and open at the bottom thereof, and also with a passage extending transversely through the said body and chamber, and being for reception ofa wedge to act against a block when placed within such chamber, and to extend therefrom, as set forth.

5. The combination of a rail having flanges projecting from opposite sides of it at its top, with an electrical circuit-wire insulator arranged on such rail and having legs projecting down from it, the said insulator on opposite sides of the rail, and each leg provided with a flange to extend under the next adjacent flange of the rail, as set forth.

6. The combination of a rail having two flanges projecting from opposite sides of it both at its top and its bottom, as described, with two circuit-wire insulators, one of which extends upward and the other downward from it, the said rail, and each is provided with flanged legs, as described, to embrace the rail, as explained.

7. The current-wire insulator supportingrail having two flanges projecting laterally from it at its edgejand notched vertically, with each of the notches of one flange directly opposite one of those in the other, as explained.

8. The combination of an electric circuitwire insulator provided not only with two legs projecting down from opposite sides of it, and having flanges extending from them inwardly at their lower ends, but with a chamber within the body and open at the bottom thereof, and also with a passage extendingtransversely through such body and chamber, in combination with a rail flanged at top and extended between such legs, and with a block arranged on such rail and in the said chamber, and with a wedge driven into the said passage and over and upon the top of such block, all being substantially as set forth.

JOSEPH LOGKE. WlLLlAllI BOWKER.

Witnesses:

R. H. EDDY, Ennns'r B. Pnx'r'r. 

